Restaurant Offers Smartphone Users Extra Benefits

Add this to the list of benefits of a smartphone: cutting in line at the restaurant.

The Melt is a new chain of grilled-cheese restaurants with its first location opening up in San Francisco this week. You'll be able to order your sandwich the old-fashioned way by waiting in line and speaking to the cashier, but you can also skip the line entirely by placing an order on your mobile phone. Doing so creates a QR code for your order, and holding the on-screen code over a scanner in the restaurant gets your order on the grill.

But, don't fret if you're still living in the Stone Age - be it with a standard cell phone or none at all: The Melt promises fast service for every customer.

Whichever way you decide to order, you'll get your grilled cheese within two minutes, says The Melt's founder, Jonathan Kaplan. Placing an order via smartphone doesn't require downloading an app, as simply visiting The Melt's Web site on your phone and entering an order creates the QR code. That makes the phone-ordering process compatible with any Web-capable phone.